Saturday, November 8, 2008

Random Bits of Fluff

God, it's been a while since I've posted! I've been keeping up with the blogs of others, though! Here's what's been up:

1) The Election - canvassed for Obama the weekend before, watched with baited breath and a bunch of friends on Tuesday. And today, I found out that I'll be joining my family at the Inauguration in January! Not with a special seat or anything, but Medieval Cousin and family live in Northern VA, so Medieval Pop, two Medieval Aunts, and assorted Medieval Cousins and accoutrements will be meeting up there and taking the metro into D.C. for the festivities. I was at the first Clinton Inauguration and it was amazing - Maya Angelou read...what a great time! So, on Jan 20, I'll be there and then I'll drive back early the next day to be here for my first afternoon class!

2) The Job Market - bites my ass. At least one - maybe two - jobs I've applied for have canceled their search. Two other schools have sent out dossier requests, but not to me (WTF, dudes? And damn you to hell, addictive job wiki...). AND a super-fine job at Slightly More Distant Neighboring Univ. that TD had expressly been asked to apply for and for which his advisor was pushing him hard....you guessed it: canceled. F*ckers. I know, I know, it's happening everywhere...TD is applying here at the Dream Academy - they don't have a position exactly in his field, but there's a good chance they won't be able to fill the 2 positions they do have with the exact people, and if they don't fill the line, chances are they won't get it back with budget cuts the way they are. SO, he might still be able to get a position here. I just feel like I need to get one outside offer to leverage here a bit more. No pressure.

If the job market bites my ass, why isn't it any smaller?

3) Thyroidally-Challenged Furball #1 - is going to get nuked soon with that radioactive gunk. He's having bad side effects to the meds and he's almost as tough to medicate as his sister, Furball "Fuzzy-Buns" #2. So, we're going to pony-up the loot and get it done soon, hopefully next week!

4) Grading - too much grading...waaaaay too much grading.

5) Work - what's that? I finished reading the 3 primary texts for my new chapter. But that's about it so far.

2 comments:

I second item No. 4. How do you keep yourself from getting grading burnout? (Besides assigning less work ... which would do my students a disservice because they need the practice for their writing and critical thinking.)

"It was lying on a butcher's block, not crying, although there was snow, but warm and chuckling under a comforter of stray cats. They were all purring together, and the sound was heavy with knowledge. I stood by the strange cradle for a long time, pondering while the snow fell and the cats purred prophecy."